Frozen Rear License Plate Bolts
 

The rear bolts on my RX-8 are rusted solid. Do I get at the nuts through the trunk, under the car, or some other way? Just trying to find the easy way before I disassemble the whole rear of the car. Also, would 2 stainless bolts have been too much to ask for from the factory/dealer?

Nothing that getting behind it is going to do for you unless you end up having to drill out the screws and put a nut back there. Some PB Blaster or WD40 though should get you in there. Make sure you wash and wax where it gets on the paint though.

you couldnt access them from the trunk. its just a plastic bumper cover. you can take it off to access them from behind. its not that hard, but it requires removal of the taillights.

what db said.

Penetrating oil failed. These are rusted on with 6 years of North Dakota and Minnesota winter salt. The screwdriver slot is trashed.

How long does it take to get the bumper cover off? My only other idea to get this off is to weld a new nut on top of the screws and use it to back them out.

You can do what i did. First go to your local auto parts store and buyAttachment 153632 The ones i bought where black. Next Drill out the screws and insert the plastic washer in the holes in the bumper and install your plate.

Yea...welding something to it isn't going to help at all...you are going to melt your plastic bumper. You need to drill out the screw then and either retap the hole or replace the nut like invasion said.

When i drilled out my screws there was nothing there just 2 holes in the bumper, no nut behind it. So i ran to the auto parts store and found something that would work.

It looks like everyone is drilling the holes out from the outside and then inserting a nut into the hole. I'll have to give that a try before taking the rear panel off.

i am having the same problem. I ended up cutting the nuts off and now have two square holes. invasion, what is that thing you bought called?

This is what i bought http://www.bellautomotive.com/asp/pr...s.asp?id=23889

taking off the rear bumper takes all of 10 minutes. Spraying some penetrating lube from the front and back and letting is sock in might do the trick for a lot of people who just went ahead and drilled it.

While not as easy as removing the front, the rear bumper does come off.

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-do-yourself-forum-73/diy-rear-bumper-removal-34696/

For those who are drilling out the screws, are you also left with a square hole? I'll take a picture of it tomorrow. Pardon my ignorance, but by putting a plastic washer in the back, how do you keep it from falling into the bumper?

The plastic washer is larger then the square hole. You can also buy the clips that are meant to fit in the holes from any mazda parts supplier.

I fixed mine. I ended up using a cutoff tool to cut the bolts while dabbing it with a wet rag to keep from overheating the paint. The back of the bolts just fell behind the bumper and onto the ground. I then got the square plastic plugs that NAPA sells to mount license plates and stuck them in the holes. I ended up getting new stainless bolts, instead of the included chrome bolts, because I didn't want to deal with rust again.

Thanks for the help.

That is basically what I did.

Good discussions here because this is just what I ran into this weekend. The wife bought some new license plate holders/trim for our cars so when I went to the RX both fasteners were rusted and just spinning with the plastic nut or whatever was behind them. After reading these threads on the rear bumper removal I opted for plan B, got out the dremmel tool, cut off the bolt heads, inserted the plastic nuts in the square holes left in the bumper (obtained from ace hardware for basically any bumper mounted plate) and installed stainless screws this time. Worked fine with minimum time.

Thanks for the tips guys.

What kind of screws are you guys drilling out? I tried removing my license plate today and the screw heads just snapped off and I'll tell you right now my screws are not metal at all. I believe they are nylon. Attached pic is of the part that was inside the hole that I was able to dislodge by simply pushing on it with a flat head screwdriver and it fell to the ground. All that's left is the empty hole. I bought some of those square tabs but they won't hold. Is there anything available where the backside of that tab will expand as the screw is threaded in, thus making the backside larger than the hole so it can't come out? I'm confused.

My original screws were very rusted metal.

I got my square deals from NAPA. I don't know if they are any different than the ones you tried. They do expand some when the screw is tightened.